"Most learned doctor," said Charles, smiling at his companion, "we come for both purposes; but more especially are we here to test that wisdom, the reputation of which has reached the four corners of the earth and filled the most profound with wonder." "You sneer, my son," observed the doctor, gravely, "but nevertheless your wishes shall be gratified, for even a skeptic may be made a believer. Shall I expound the past to you?" "First enlighten my incredulous companion as to his fate," replied Charles, "and then I will judge how far you can speak of mine." "Give me the hour of your birth," said the doctor, turning to De Grammont, "and I will consult the stars in reference to your fortune." De Grammont did as he was desired, and the astrologer left the apartment. In a few moments he returned. "You are not what you seem!" he said, seating himself, and addressing De Grammont. "Pray heaven you prove me no worse," replied De Grammont, laughing; "I am a thriving merchant, though I would fain be a lord or a duke." "The merchandise you deal in," said the astrologer, "is to be found in the mart of fashion, where frailty, unrebuked, boldly lifts its head by the side of innocence, making the latter undistinguishable Thou hast naught to do with those wares that make a nation's commerce." De Grammont laughed as he asked him of his parentage and past fortune. "You are nobly derived," replied the astrologer: "you have been the companion of kings." "Tut, tut!" exclaimed Charles, "thy art discloses naught. Thou wilt surely make me an emperor if my friend is already the companion of kings." After a few more questions, which were as shrewdly answered by the adept, it became the disguised monarch's turn to learn his fate. "Yours has been a checkered life," the doctor said, when he had, as before, consulted the stars. "The planets show that you have been beset by as many and as great vicissitudes even as the monarch now seated upon England's throne, and that thou hast profited as little by them." Charles exchanged a smile with De Grammont, as he said-- "I thought you had a throne reserved for me, though I fear me 'tis in the moon it must be fixed. Prove but your words, however, and thou shalt be my chief favorite." "That," replied the astrologer, "is too precarious a place for me. They say that Rochester is banished from King Charles's court, and what hope could I have of pleasing if he could be dispensed with? Nevertheless, I'll prove my words." "Tell me, then, of the present," said Charles. "I'll tell you of a war, and a concluded treaty of peace, that the world knows not yet of." "With what nation, most sapient sir?" asked the monarch, laughing.